Kodiak. Hordes of fish. Huge brown bears. Sitka black-tailed deer. Herds of buffalo on the island.

It’s a paradise for the salmon fanatic, the avowed hunter of halibut, and the trout connoisseur content to pursue incredible numbers of Dolly Varden and steelhead. It is a place of immense beauty but challenging and constantly changing weather.

Located some 250 air miles southwest of Anchorage, Kodiak Island is the second largest island in the United States and home to several unique communities—Old Harbor, Larsen Bay, Karluk, Akhiok, Ouzinkie, and Port Lions being just a few. Opportunities for the well-rounded traveler abound. Boasting of spectacular coastal scenery, accessible and varied wildlife-viewing excursions, and several areas of historical and cultural import, the island also serves as a major hub for Alaska’s commercial fishing fleet and as a staging point for goods heading by ship to the remote communities of southwest Alaska. The city of Kodiak is home to the largest U.S. Coast Guard base in the country. And of course, there is always the island’s renowned freshwater angling, which begins in popular roadside rivers like the Pasagshak, American, and Buskin and extends to more remote waterways like the Karluk, Ayakulik, or Uganik rivers.

This adventure brings us to Kodiak in late August to experience a smorgasbord of fishing with a slant towards saltwater silvers. Like can often happen with a Kodiak adventure, it evolves into far more than that.

We arrive on Sunday evening and get everyone to the appropriate hotel before going out to explore some of the road system fishing. Mike LeNorman, sales director for ERA Aviation, Mike Moberly of Spenard Builders Supply, Scott Vrolick and Chad Campbell of ACS, and myself, Melissa and Wayne Norris, Alan Powers, and Rick Birch of Fish Alaska magazine are the players in the first three days of this fishing theatre. All of us stay at the Buskin Inn except for Melissa and Wayne, who stay at Best Western Kodiak Inn.

The following morning we split into two groups. Wayne, Melissa, and Mike LeNorman travel to Saltery Creek by four-wheelers with Grif of Salty Fly Safaris. Their trip is incredible, from the scenery to the wildlife to the fishing (See the sidebar in this article for more details).

Mike M., Scott, Chad, and myself spend the day with Dan Busch of Kodiak Island River Camps. Dan’s company caters strictly to fly fishermen and offers opportunities like weeklong packages on Kodiak for salmon or other fishing adventures targeting steelhead on the Karluk River. We will target pink and silver salmon arriving directly from the saltwater and experience some of the road system rivers.

Dan Busch is a retired high school teacher and has been on Kodiak for over 30 years. He is a very patient person and a good teacher and was perfect for the task of teaching Mike, Chad, and Scott to flyfish. At the beginning of the outing, I wasn’t confident that they would catch a salmon with a fly rod, but by the end of the day, double and triple hookups were common.

We begin the day at Myrtle Creek and wade out into the salt flats where the river begins. Our task has many similar characteristics to bonefishing in that we are instructed to wade out into the shallow water and look for finning fish before casting to the front of the school. We use sparse flies that imitate shrimp as well as the Alaska staple of egg-sucking leeches and other streamers. Leaders are about eight feet long and taper from 20 to 10-pound test. We do not need to use weight as the water is only about three feet deep on average, and we cast and retrieve at a moderate pace, using foot-long strips. Action is fairly slow and after landing three fish in 30 minutes, Dan decides it is time for us to move on.

My opinion of pink salmon fishing before this day ranged somewhere between love and hate. I love that most anglers can find success in catching pinks and that these salmon fresh from the sea are fine to eat (I especially like them smoked). I hate that it can sometimes seem impossible to catch other species because of the sheer number of pinks. After this day, my opinion of this often-overlooked sport fish climbed several rungs toward admiration, as the action was steady and sometimes sizzling, and pinks fresh from the salt fight for all they are worth.

We finish the day fishing in the saltwater at the confluence of the Olds River and Kalsin Creek. Wading and casting are phenomenal here—flat, firm sand bars with minimal rock and lots of snag-free territory to cast flies. Between the four of us we catch and release in the neighborhood of 50 dime-bright pinks. Everyone has a new appreciation for flyfishing on this day.

Day two dawns with high winds and lots of rain and foils our plans to put eight anglers on the saltwater between True North Adventures and Kodiak King Busters. Instead Wayne, Alan, and I drive to the north end of the road system to try our luck with the pinks flowing into Monashka Bay. We spend two hours in a downpour steadily catching fresh pink salmon. We are again able to wade several hundred yards from the spot where Monashka Creek runs into the bay, nearly into what looks to be open ocean. Occasionally one of us will hook and land a starry flounder when our lures linger too close to the bottom.

Alan and I throw 8-weight, 9-foot fly rods and floating line with an 8-foot leader tapered from 0x-3x Froghair fluorocarbon. We use Teeny nymphs and find that the #6 pink and white and the red and white in the same size both work very well. Wayne casts a variety of spinners and spoons with a medium-action baitcaster. He lands fish with Mepps Flying C’s in both pink and green and has additional luck with the Blue Fox Pixie and Vibrax in similar colors. All lures are K-I ounces. The three of us see non-stop action and land 60-plus fish in the two hours we froth the water. I think that the important part of the equation was to have a medium speed retrieve in either fishing application—just enough to cause the fish to strike.

Wayne and I wrap up the day fishing by catching Dolly Varden in the Buskin River. We fish above the “Beaver Pond”—a well-known local spot with fairly swift water that often produces silver salmon. Using 4-weight, 9-foot fly rods, floating line, and long leaders tapered to 3x or 6-pound test, we are able to catch Dollies on single beads in the 6mm size. Color does not appear to be that important this day, but size makes a noticeable difference. We start the fishing with 8 or 10 mm beads, and after catching zero fish, switch down to 6mm. The action is continuous and we land about 20 Dollies, mostly in the 12 to 16-inch class with an occasional fish reaching 20 inches.

On day three, the weather is slightly more cooperative, but with winds hitting the island from several directions, it makes it difficult to travel through open water to get to productive fishing grounds. Roger Aulabaugh of Dutchman Charters agrees to go for a boat ride with us, and Alan, Rick, Melissa, Wayne, and myself meet him at slip F11 in the new boat harbor. We know that we will not be able to experience the fishing opportunities afforded anglers on a nice day in Kodiak, but we want to spend some time with Roger and figure the worst day of fishing is still better than the best day of working.

Roger uses a 28-foot Bayliner with a 454 Merc Cruiser to charter four anglers or groups of six on sightseeing tours. It is a very comfortable boat that cruises at16 to 18 knots with a big cabin that we enjoy on the 30-minute ride through the chop to troll between Woody and Long islands. Roger is a retired Fish and Wildlife officer and has been on Kodiak Island for 16 years and chartering for six. From May through September he offers charters for king salmon, silver salmon, halibut, lingcod, and yelloweye snapper. One of the highlights of 2003 was having a client fight a 350-pound halibut for an hour and 15 minutes, and then release it.

We troll two rods—8-foot Ugly Stick Tigers, 12-30-pound class, with Quantum Iron IR 320 baitcasting reels spooled with 25-pound Ande monofilament—using a flasher and hoochie on one rod and a Luhr-Jensen Cop Car Coyote on the other. The silvers have been sparse so far this year and the combined rough water and slow fishing send us back to the harbor early. We had hoped to be able to spend some quality time with some of the members of the Kodiak Charterboat Association, but weather hampers this quest. There’s always another trip to Kodiak.

Thursday, day four, dawns sunny and calm. It is a delightful reprieve from the past three days. We are now accompanied by Carlos Rosan and Sean Lindemood of ACS and Charles Clement of the South Central Foundation and Wilson Duffels of Nana Corporation. Rick stays on Kodiak with me and the rest of the original group heads back to Anchorage. Sean and Rick will stay in Kodiak and fish on the saltwater with Kodiak Island Charters while Carlos, Charles, and Wilson accompany me to Quartz Creek Lodge.

Harvey Flying Service will transport us to the lodge in their Grumman Widgeon. Steve Harvey has been flying around Alaska since he was a boy, and from the way he handles the Widgeon, it is clear that he has countless hours of experience. The flight is smooth and the visibility is good and we are treated to an aerial tour of Kodiak.

As we approach Quartz Creek Lodge from the air, it is obvious that crowds won’t be a factor. Sitting on the hillside above a secluded bay, the lodge offers a 180-degree view of mountains and water. Dave and Pam Pingree built the lodge to fulfill several needs—to provide both a family atmosphere and a high-end fishing experience. We will spend one day fishing the Uganik River for salmon and Dolly Varden and half a day trolling the saltwater for migrating silver salmon.

The lodge is comprised of a main building that is the central meeting and dining area as well as the home of the Pingree family—Pam, Dave, their two boys, Levi and Aaron, and three girls, Beth, Faith, and Amy. Three cabins and a bathhouse with two full baths as well as an additional building with a Banya complete the operation. One of the cabins is occupied by John, Pam and Dave’s business partner and a certified fishing fanatic. The other two cabins house three people each. To provide each guest with the best experience possible, Quartz Creek Lodge likes to limit the amount of people staying at the lodge to six at any one time.

We move our luggage from the plane on the beach to the lodge and quickly don our river angling gear. After a 30-minute ride in one of the lodge’s saltwater boats, we moor the boat to a buoy about one mile from the entrance to the Uganik River and the five of us jump into a Naid (inflatable boat) to make the final run into the river.

Dave assures us that the river will be full of pinks, chums, and Dollies and that the silvers have been slowly entering the river. This is an introduction to flyfishing for Carlos, Wilson, and Chuck, and they are quickly (within five minutes of fishing) rewarded with Dolly Varden. In fact, Wilson landed a nice 18-inch fish on his first cast. By day’s end, the five of us have landed over 100 Dollies and a handful of pinks and chums. The fish are not leader shy. We pegged 6mm beads and used the appropriate amount of split shot to bounce the bead along the bottom. The Dollies are incredibly aggressive, and we are able to catch them on the surface by waking our beads. I’ve never seen an egg swim upriver, but these Dollies don’t seem to care. We are also treated to some of Kodiak’s famous bears, and see six, including a sow and her three cubs, on the river.

Back at the lodge, we enjoy a fantastic dinner of silver salmon, halibut, and fresh tanner crab as well as a salad harvested from the garden. The Pingrees are allowed to harvest tanner crab and a five-minute boat ride from the lodge puts you on the crab pot site. Thus, when I say that the evening meal of crab was fresh, I mean that they were alive 45 minutes before we ate them.

The following morning is as beautiful as the day before, and we pile into the saltwater boat after breakfast and head out to troll for silvers. After a 45-minute boat ride, we find ourselves trolling at 2 to 2.5 knots near Noisy Island. We use downriggers to get Hot Spot mini flashers in front of blue or green hoochies to 35-60 feet. Dave uses 8-foot, 3-inch Ugly Sticks and Ambassadeur 6500 C3s spooled with 25-pound Tufline spectra to troll for silvers. Action is steady and in the three hours we spend fishing, we hook 15 silvers and land 12. Fish range from 6 to 17 pounds. We are also treated to whale spoutings and get close to a sea otter that the Pingrees have affectionately named Fred.

We are picked up at the lodge by Andrew Airways in their DeHavilland Beaver. It is a very well kept plane, and like most Beavers in Alaska, it allows enough room to get all four of us comfortably in the plane in addition to all of our gear. It’s another blue-sky day, great for flying, and we are treated to spectacular aerials on our flight back. In addition to providing transportation to fishers and hunters, Andrew Airways provides flight-seeing, bear viewing, and cargo transportation on the Alaska Peninsula, within Katmai National Park, and on Kodiak Island.

As in many Fish Alaska magazine trips, we were able to experience a diversity of fishing opportunities, meet some great people, and create memories to share for years to come. Kodiak is one of those destinations that will provide an interesting fishing outing to virtually all anglers, and one that we will regularly visit.

Marcus Weiner is a publisher of Fish Alaska magazine.

Read more about our Kodiak Adventures

http://www.fishalaskamagazine.com/archives/2004/104_kodiak1.htm